Doomsday
History Origin The nameless being later to be called Doomsday was artificially created in the distant past on Krypton, long before the humanoid Kryptonian race had gained dominance over the planet. During this time period, Krypton was a violent, hellish world where only the absolute strongest of creatures could survive (at the time, the world's dominant lifeforms were said to be the most dangerous creatures in the universe). Doomsday's creator was a mysterious alien named Bertron, who wished to create the ultimate life form. To do so, Bertron and his team sent a baby onto the surface of the planet, where it would be instantly killed by the harsh environment or the vicious creatures inhabiting it. Each time, whatever of the lifeform's remains that survived were harvested and used again, to create a better, stronger version than the previous. In short, the mad scientist was using the method of cloning to accelerate the evolution of the being he was creating. Through decades of this process, the being who would eventually become Doomsday was forced to endure the agony of death, thousands upon thousands of times; the memory of these countless deaths was recorded in his genes and drove it to hate all life. Eventually, Doomsday gained the ability to evolve against what killed him in his prior life without the need of Bertron's technology. At this point he proceeded to hunt down and kill all of the lethal creatures that inhabited Krypton. Bertron himself met his death at the hands of his own creation. Doomsday escaped Krypton and went on a killing spree across several planets. He began with crashlanding on Bylan 5 (245,000 years ago), a planet where Darkseid was about to wed a princess (in order to obtain that planet's chemical deposits for Apokolips' weapons factories). Just as Doomsday and Darkseid were to meet in combat, Darkseid was forced to flee as the battle had caused the planet's atmosphere to become toxic and therefore worthless to Apokolips. Doomsday managed to hitch a ride on an escaping shuttle. This shuttle eventually crashed on Khundia. The warring Khundian clans united in order to build protective armor for a warrior named Kobald. His goal was to survive long enough to force Doomsday onto a rocket. Once the rocket was in space, Doomsday killed Kobald and the resulting explosion sent him hurling through space. He would next come across the path of a Green Lantern named Zharan Pel. Doomsday took his power ring and sensing the power of the Guardians of the Universe, made his way to them. Hundreds of Green Lanterns were sent to stop him and were killed. He continued to Oa where a single Guardian sacrificed himself in battle to defeat him. With Doomsday dead, the Guardians turned their attention to rebuilding the Corps. In reality, the release of massive energies by the Guardian had caused a tear in space through which an injured and unconscious Doomsday fell. Eventually coming to Calaton, he tore that world apart for three years. With only the capital city left, all the members of the royal family combined their life forces into a single energy being, The Radiant. The Radiant killed Doomsday with a huge blast of energy (laying waste to over a fifth of his world in the process). In common Calatonian burial procedures, Doomsday's body was shackled and masked, and due to his status as a murderer, was shot into space. Eventually, he would land on Earth, the force of the impact of his landing driving the casket deep underground. Doomsday, however, was not dead, as any time he would be "killed", he would return, having evolved past whatever defeated him. Death of Superman In his first encounter with the Justice League, shortly after breaking free from underground, Doomsday defeated the entire team of superheroes in a matter of minutes, which in turn attracted the attention of Superman. Notable is the fact that the creature fought the entire time with literally one hand tied behind his back, yet still was able to lay waste to all opposition and much of the surrounding area. The only Justice Leaguer who could even defend herself against Doomsday was Maxima. Also at that time, his naming occurred when League member Booster Gold stated how the rampage resembled "the arrival of Doomsday" (meaning, the end of the world). The comment subsequently reached the broadcast media and thereafter led to the creature's accepted name. During his rampage, Doomsday took interest in billboards and television spots advertising violent wrestling competitions held in Metropolis, which appealed to his bloodlust and thus enticed the otherwise mindless creature to head towards the city. By counterattacking, Superman quickly found that his opponent's awesome power was a match for his own, and so he realized that if Doomsday actually reached Metropolis, the resulting battle could conceivably destroy the city and kill millions of innocent people. Simultaneously, Doomsday developed a strong desire to murder Superman in particular. That desire was later explained in the Hunter/Prey miniseries: from the agony of continually dying during his creation process, Doomsday developed in his genes the ability to sense anyone Kryptonian, plus an overriding instinct to treat any such beings as an automatic threat. (However, it remains unexplained why Doomsday did not also react with this specific type of malice towards the Cyborg Superman, who clearly possessed Kryptonian DNA). Death in Metropolis Doomsday battled Superman in a titanic struggle, leading the hero to conclude that the creature would only continue to attack relentlessly and endlessly, with no urge for surrender. In an act of self-sacrifice, Superman refused to give up despite taking serious wounds and running low on stamina. The fight raged to the bitter end, where the two combatants each struck a simultaneous, fatal blow, leaving both of them lifeless in front of the Daily Planet building in Metropolis. In the aftermath of Superman's apparent death, no fewer than four super-beings appeared in his wake, two of them declaring themselves to be the "real" Superman. One of these four, a half-man/half-machine who greatly resembled Superman (and who would later become a dangerous villain called simply "The Cyborg"), took custody of Doomsday's apparently lifeless body. After strapping the creature to an asteroid with an electronic device attached (a device later revealed, in the Hunter/Prey books, to be a backup of the cyborg's essence), the Cyborg flung Doomsday into deep space, on a trajectory supposedly certain to never intersect any other planet. The issue closed with an image of an awakened and laughing Doomsday, still strapped to the asteroid but otherwise in good condition. Round Two: Hunter and Prey Eventually, after passing through a wormhole, Doomsday's asteroid was accidentally found by a deep-space scavenger ship. Upon closer examination of the peculiar-looking drifting rock, the ship's crew retrieved the object hoping to find something of value. The scavenger vessel happened to be on a route to Apokolips, the home of the awesomely-powerful tyrant Darkseid. Doomsday was fully rested and, after slaughtering the crew of the salvage ship, found himself landing on the harsh world. This was to be the setup for a final showdown between Doomsday and Superman (similarly resurrected, in the meantime), who had been uneasy about the possibility of Doomsday's resurrection. With the help of his JLA contacts, Superman procured a Mother Box, a thinking computer, after Darkseid's servant DeSaad contacted Earth about a problem on Apokolips. Unknown to Superman, Doomsday had faced and beaten Darkseid himself in single combat (even surviving Darkseid's fabled Omega Beams) and was laying waste to Apokolips. Unfortunately, before Superman could deal with Doomsday, Desaad opened a boom tube to Calaton the first world where Doomsday was successfully defeated -- and sent Doomsday through to what he believed was his defeat at the hands of The Radiant. However, Doomsday is essentially able to adapt and overcome any opponent because of the process by which he was created (he was always stronger than he had been prior to his last death); so, although the Radiant had defeated him once, he would not be able to defeat him again. Likewise, even though Superman had killed Doomsday once before, he would be unable to do so again. Superman, while knowing this, was obsessed with stopping Doomsday and traveled to Calaton. He fought Doomsday again with the help of the Mother Box, but, despite it providing him with extra weapons such as an ultrasonic gun and an energy sword, Superman met with defeat. He was forced to use one of Waverider's time travel devices to leave Doomsday stranded at the End of Time, where Doomsday met the one force he could not overcome: entropy. Duplicates During the Wonder Woman Lifeline storyline, an imperfect duplicate of Doomsday was created by an artificial intelligence based on the son of scientist Doctor Julian Lazarus, who was attempting to bring his son back after being responsible for the accident that killed him. The AI based on the child had already created short-lived copies of Barry Allen and Sinestro, but he simply didn't realize that he was creating an actual monster; he thought he was simply playing a computer game. Despite the duplicate possessing all of Doomsday's raw strength, with the aid of the new Wonder Girl, and the disguised Hercules (Currently posing as new hero Champion in a plot against the Amazons), Wonder Woman was able to shatter the false Doomsday when he was given access to so much power that his bone spurs covered his body, leaving him unable to move and reduced to a simple statue that Wonder Woman was able to shatter. In an attempt to understand death, Mister Mxyzptlk created a temporary copy of Doomsday, who subsequently killed Mxyzptlk in the fight. However, Mxyzptlk was resurrected that same issue during a meeting with the 'Supreme Being', and removed the Doomsday duplicate from the fight once again. The Doomsday Wars Doomsday returned yet again in the mini-series The Doomsday Wars. In this series, Prin Vnok, an underling of Brainiac uses his technology to travel to the End of Time to retrieve Doomsday in order to combine the beast's massive power with Brainiac's formidable intellect (this was later revealed to have taken place due to the timeline's reconstruction following the events of 'Zero Hour', when the former (at that time) Green Lantern Hal Jordan, presently known as Parallax broke down creation and the heroes were forced to trigger their own Big Bang to stop him; the reconstruction of time meant that Brainiac was able to change the outcome of Doomsday's defeat). Doomsday's will proved too strong to override completely with psionics, and he reacted too quickly for any chemical process to eliminate his simple mind, so Brainiac attempted to use a human host to genetically engineer a Doomsday body without the mind while temporarily lodging in Doomsday's head. He chose to use Pete Ross and Lana Lang's newborn baby, born eight weeks premature and being transported by Superman to the best Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit in the country; Brainiac intercepted Superman during the attempt and stole the baby to hurt his long-time foe, correctly deducing that it was the child of someone close to Superman. In the end, Superman thwarted Brainiac's plot by driving him out of Doomsday's body via the use of a telepathy-blocking 'psi-blocker'. He then lured Doomsday to the moon, where he placed Doomsday in a kind of stasis with four JLA teleporters; perpetually transporting between those four booths, Doomsday would never be more than 25% integrated, and thus unable to 'think' of a plan to escape. Our Worlds at War Following these events, Doomsday was released by Lex Luthor's Suicide Squad to battle Imperiex, a threat that was judged to be even greater than Doomsday himself. Once freed, Doomsday slaughtered the Squad, and then went on to battle Imperiex's numerous probes (his mind having been altered to regard them as the threat he normally perceived Superman to be), which had thus far managed to seriously injure or kill most of Earth's heroes. Doomsday tore through numerous probes with seemingly little effort, while aided by Superman — the only time the two enemies would come close to teaming up — before finally confronting Imperiex himself. Imperiex proved too much for Doomsday; he blasted him, reducing the creature to a glowing skeleton. Just a little while later, Superman #175 commemorated the 100th issue since the death of Superman in battle with Doomsday by staging a re-match. It is shown that Doomsday's skeleton was retrieved and his flesh regrown by Lex Luthor (by using Superman's Kryptonian DNA), who handed Doomsday over to Darkseid (Luthor's aide in the retrieval, repair, and improvement of Doomsday) to repay Earth's war debt to Apokolips. By this time, Doomsday had evolved intelligence and sentience. Luthor arranged for the Joker to set Doomsday loose in Washington D.C. to demonstrate that he was "in good working condition." It also happened to be the anniversary of the day that Superman had died while stopping Doomsday. Despite being weakened by kryptonite exposure when Luthor attempted to exploit Doomsday's Kryptonian origins, Superman's heart was restarted by Black Lightning and he reached Doomsday just as the monster was struggling with the Martian Manhunter. Learning from J'onn that Doomsday wanted to kill Luthor because he blamed Luthor for his 'death' in the Imperiex War, Superman managed to defeat the creature by using his newfound sentience and intelligence against him. While Superman proceeds to take everything Doomsday throws at him and then knock him out for good, he explains how he has done so: :::You're different now. You can think for yourself. So think about this. Before, you were a mindless thing. Nothing could hurt you. You couldn't feel pain, much less understand it. But once you have felt it- it changes you- forever. And you'll begin to understand something new. Fear. I've lived with it all my life. You don't want to die again, do you? The agony of what's happened to you affects your speed- your strength ... and that little bit of doubt- that you cannot win today- grows. You understand now, don't you? You will never hurt me again. You will never kill me again. Never again! Darkseid attempted to replicate Doomsday, producing an army of Doomsday "clones." Fortunately, Darkseid was not able to duplicate perfectly the creature in all its raw power, possibly as a result of the creature's complex DNA, and they were defeated by a combination of heat vision and Batman's explosive batarangs during an attack on Paradise Island while Darkseid kidnapped the newly-arrived Supergirl. When Superman traveled to Apokolips to reclaim the life of John Henry Irons, the man known as Steel, Darkseid's wife Mortalla ordered his troops to release Doomsday in an attempt to help Darkseid. Doomsday's short freedom was quickly halted by John Henry Irons in the Entropy Aegis, an armor with incredible power that had been built out of the remains of an Imperiex probe. Doomsday disappeared and was seen wandering the harsh lands of Apokolips. Sentience With his newfound intelligence, Doomsday managed to escape Apokolips and return to Earth. Upon his arrival, Doomsday encountered a series of emotions previously alien to him love, compassion and kindness. Exploring the full abilities of these new emotions, Doomsday made his way to Metropolis once more, though not in the destructive manner he had before. Upon his arrival in Metropolis, Doomsday found Superman at the brink of death at the hands of one of his enemies. Using his new emotions, Doomsday shocked both Superman and his opponent, Gog by helping Superman fight against Gog's army. This unfortunately was not enough and Gog stood triumphant over Superman. In this new future, Doomsday was remembered as one of Earth's greatest heroes, who continued Superman's legacy by leading an army under his name against the army of Gog. This new timeline ended when it was revealed that Superman was still alive. Superman had been trapped for two centuries and tortured by Gog. Superman was bound and surrounded by kryptonite, not enough to kill him but enough to prevent his escape. Gog constantly asked Superman why he didn't save his family. Superman tells Gog that he could not trade their lives for others. Gog began offering Superman a chance to go back in time and kill him; Superman refused. Eventually Superman shows Gog the error of his ways. Suddenly Doomsday bursts in and picks up Superman. Gog offered Doomsday the chance to return to the past telling Doomsday that he can correct all of this albeit at the cost of becoming a monster again. Back in the present, an unconscious Doomsday was transported away by a younger version of Gog to an unknown location for an unknown purpose. Battle of Metropolis During Infinite Crisis, Doomsday was freed from captivity in a cavern near the center of the Earth by Doctor Psycho and Warp. He was then mind-controlled by Doctor Psycho and used as the "spear-carrier" of a supervillain assault on Metropolis. Just as he came into full view in front of Green Arrow, he was stopped by Kal-El and Kal-L, the two Supermen, who made quick work of the villain as, for the first time, the two Supermen acted as a team. New Krypton Doomsday reappeared shortly after the establishment of |New Krypton in the North Pole. He fell from the sky during a Kryptonian delegation to Washington, D.C. Despite Doomsday's prodigious might, the battle was short-lived. Fighting against Superman would have been difficult enough, but he had little hope of winning against dozens of super-powered Kryptonians. Superman, Supergirl, Zor-El, Alura In-Ze and several others took Doomsday to the moon where they incapacitated him. Powers and Abilities Powers Evolutionary Regenerative Healing Factor: Doomsday was created and evolved through cloning an infant and having it killed over and over again by one of the most dangerous species of the universe and in one of the harshest habitats in existence, prehistoric Krypton. As such, he returns to life every time he dies and becomes resistant or immune to what killed him before. An example of this was how Doomsday was immune to the Radiant's energy after being killed by the Radiant the first time they fought. Also, Doomsday was shown to be extremely resilient to energy based attacks when facing Darkseid, even going so far as to brutally attack the Lord of Apokolips who had unleashed the force of his omega beams on Doomsday at point blank range. The amount of damage dealt to Doomsday determines the length of time it would take to fully recover. If Doomsday was barely killed with minimal damage, his recovery could be as little as a few months; if he was extensively damaged (like when Imperiex reduced him to a skeleton), it could take even thousands of years without assistance. Doomsday also has a highly accelerated healing factor that allows him to heal and regenerate from most damage almost instantly. :Adaptive Resistances: Doomsday can also develop/evolve resistances to whatever injures or harms him, which was demonstrated in the Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey series. His shield is among the strongest in the universe. Superman used a sound gun to paralyze Doomsday, but Doomsday's auditory canals simply closed up making him impervious to Superman's weapon. Waverider paralyzed Doomsday once with chronal energy, but the second attempt backlashed on Waverider. In essence, Doomsday can become as invulnerable as he needs to be. Doomsday however has proven incapable of resistance to physical and forceful damage. :*''Adaptive Countermeasures: Doomsday can also develop weapons/evolutions to counter an opponent such as the case when he cancelled out a being of pure energy (i.e. Radiant) by generating an aura of energy and slamming into him, extending his claws to strike while Superman was in flight and reel him in while slowly poisoning him in the aforementioned ''Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey or breathe flames against the Martian Manhunter in Superman #175. Bone Protrusions: As a result of these evolutions, Doomsday is covered by bony protrusions all through out his body that serves as added protection for what few vital organs he has (brain, eyes, heart, nervous system) and as weapons (in the form of claws, fangs, and elbow/knee spurs). Superhuman Strength: Doomsday is able to easily lift in excess of 100 tons ;Doomsday possesses vast super strength; even more than Superman. In the Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey mini series, he was able to break Superman's left arm even though Superman was at that time experiencing a massive energy surge which was making him stronger and pushing him closer to invulnerability. He cannot fly, but rather travels by leaping miles at a time, similar to the Hulk. Superman took advantage of this in their first battle by trying to keep him airborne. He also used it to his advantage when he deposited Doomsday in a lake to slow him down, while Superman saved a mother and her child from a burning house. Superhuman Durability: His other abilities include extreme resistance to heat, cold, and injury allowing him to survive on the most inhospitable worlds as well as survive in the vacuum of space. Doomsday's resistance to injury is increased further due to his lack of internal organs. Superhuman Stamina: Doomsday possesses almost inexhaustible stamina. Superman once remarked on Doomsday, "We've been fighting all day and Doomsday doesn't seem to have slowed down". Superhuman Speed & Reflexes: Most surprising are his reflexes and speed for his size. In a matter of seconds, Doomsday managed to render most of the Justice League incapable of fighting. Solar Radiation Absorption: Similar to Superman's Kryptonian DNA, Doomsday absorbs and processes solar radiation and can store it for thousands of years. Self-Sustenance: As a result of his engineering, Doomsday does not need to eat, drink, breathe, or sleep and his body is almost solid mass. Sense Kryptonian: A genetic ability to sense anyone kryptonian Abilities *Coming Soon Strength *Class 100+; Doomsday is able to easily lift in excess of 100 tons Doomsday's strength is equal to, if not greater than, that of Superman and most other characters. Weakness Sub-Atomic Disintegrated: Reducing Doomsday's body to the sub-atomic level and then scattering these particles across time and space is sufficient to slow his regenerating ability. He can also be disintegrated by a concentrated plasmatic energy beam, just like Imperiex did to defeat him during the Our Worlds At War storyline, though he will always reconstitute. In this case, only Doomsday's skeleton remained intact. Although his skin and bones are invulnerable; During their battle in Metropolis, Superman managed to hurt Doomsday by snapping one of his knee protrusions. Kryptonian Rage: Overriding instinct to treat any being with Kryptonian DNA as an automatic threat. Equipment Transportation *Leaping great distances (provided by his strength). Weapons *Doomsday's Bone Protrusions may be considered weapons. Notes *Coming Soon Trivia *Doomsday was also the name of the 14th episode of the 1978 animated series, The Challenge of the Super Friends.'' See Also *Doomsday/Gallery *Doomsboy *Doomsday *Doomsday Cult *All-American Boy In Other Media *Doomsday appears in the ''Justice League animated series and the successor Justice League Unlimited voiced by Michael Jai White. In this series, Doomsday is an imperfect clone of Superman, genetically engineered by Project Cadmus. In his first appearance Doomsday fights the Justice Lords (a tyrannical version of the Justice League from a parallel universe), and is lobotomized by the alternate-universe Superman's heat vision. Doomsday's brain regenerates, and Dr. Achilles Milo, a Project Cadmus member, releases Doomsday to kill Amanda Waller. However, Doomsday instead kills Milo and goes to an island to fight Superman. Doomsday is defeated when Superman throws him into an active volcano. The Justice League then sentences him to life imprisonment in the Phantom Zone when they were unable to gain any info about Cadmus from him. As he was genetically engineered with Superman's DNA, he is more similar to Bizarro. *Doomsday appears as a Jeckyll and Hyde type character in Smallville with Davis Bloome as his human persona that is trying to contain the kryptonian beast inside him. Links *http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Doomsday_(New_Earth) *http://www.comicvine.com/doomsday/29-9989/ Category:Villains Category:Kryptonians